1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of human interface devices. In particular, the present invention relates to optical detection of device motion as an input to human interface devices.
2. Background of the Invention
Among other factors, the rise of robust networks, such as the Internet and mobile phone networks, has accelerated the convergence between what had previously been, for consumers, distinct types of devices: cellular telephones, computers, and displays. Such convergence has not only meant novel ways of interfacing between them but also the creation of devices, such as smartphones or interactive video displays that straddle the border between them.
Additional advances in technology have presented new problems for human interface devices. As computing devices become smaller and smaller (first with laptops and later with PDAs and netbooks), it has been more and more difficult to include a “mouse” interface into these devices. Many solutions, such as touch pads, significantly increase the size of such devices or are unwieldy to use for many applications that require sensitive control of the cursor, such as graphics applications.
Aside from the demands of smaller form factors, new devices, such as interactive video displays or interactive televisions present more fundamental obstacles to using a traditional mouse input. For such devices, it cannot be assumed there will be a flat surface near the device to move a mouse over or even that the user will be close to the device. If such a device is deployed in public, specialized interactive technology (such as TV remote controls or their analogues) created specifically for the device will not work because everyone who would potentially use the device must have access to the technology. If the device is not used in public, then specialized interactive devices may be useful. However, a private environment with many such devices would require the user to maintain many such specialized interactive devices.
Some of the problems outlined for the human interface of such novel devices have been addressed by allowing users to use their cellular telephones for mouse input. For example, some BLUETOOTH-enabled cellular telephones allow users to use the cellular telephone keypad as a mouse input to control the cursors on computers. Typically, via a wireless connection between the cellular telephone and the computer, pressing buttons on the keypad cause the cursor to move up, down, left, or right on the screen. Thus, such input does not truly capture the full generality of a mouse input, which can be directed smoothly in any direction.
Thus, there is a clear need for devices, methods, and systems which allow for cellular telephones to act as a fully general mouse input and that allow for management of multiple cellular telephone mouse connections to one device and multiple connections by one cellular telephone mouse to multiple devices.